Bilberry Fields Winter Fell Race: Race 11 of 60@60

So on to Todmorden for the third race in 4 days, making hay while the sun doesn't shine in the busy week between Christmas and New Year. This can't go well. I've never done the Bilberry Fields Winter Fell Race before but looking at the map outside the pub at registration I do have a vague recollection of once doing a summer evening race with an out and back bit on the Calderdale Way. After much discussion, we figure out which way round we'll be going and it's up, along, down, back up, back along, back down. Simples. Minimal kit requirements, just follow everybody else, it'll be reet, just like the old days!

Tim again sets off fastest of our group, Luke follows, then me, just trying to stay running up the concrete road where the race starts. Katie again sets off at the back. My legs feel surprisingly strong and I pass a few on the first along then pass some more on the first fabulous down, Tim amongst them. He gets me back on the back up and opens a small gap but I repond on the back along, passing on the turn into the back down. Great fun - a proper ding dong do. Beating the boyfriend of your daughter, of half your age, is an inestimable pleasure, and first V60 to boot. A good day!

Left to right: Tim, me, Luke and Katie

Results: 23rd/74  V60:1st/12   Time: 47:47

Distance: 7.4km  Climb: 371m

Luke: 16th T: 43:56    Tim: 30th T: 49:21   Katie: 47th T: 55:12

Wansfell: Race 10 of 60@60

The day after the trip to Rossendale this was never going to be easy and the conditions for the race made sure that it wasn't. Flooded roads, pay-by-phone parking nonsense in Ambleside and constant heavy rain made even getting to the event a bit of a test of stamina. Our family team of four made it to registration in time though, complete with full kit, the requirement for which was rigorously enforced at registration. I must say that I felt a bit sorry for anybody turning up without a map to run a course which could be fully described in one short sentence but hey, organiser's prerogative and I'm happy to comply.

I found the climb hard and soon lost sight of Luke and Tim, with Katie taking a cautious approach behind. The wind at the top was savage, the rain horizontal and a couple of the juniors in the race had fallen by the wayside and were being helped back down as I climbed past. I soon passed Tim but to be honest, didn't descend very well at all, slipping and sliding a few times on the way. I finished OK, behind Luke by a long way but with only superficial damage. The real winner was Katie who overtook Tim at the bottom of the fell descent and held him off on the run in to the finish.

Results: 70th/118  V60: 5th/13  Time: 33:13
Distance: 4km  Climb: 405m

Luke: 40th T: 28:14,  Katie: 95th T: 37:58, Tim Lages: 96th T: 38:07.

Whinberry Naze: Race 9 of 60@60

Festive fancy dress disguises this short but tough race up and down Cowpe Lowe. A tough start up a concrete road which fades into a track, then a steep grassy path leads up to a flatter section over a boggy moor. The final climb to the flat top and trig point is short but brutally steep.

I gained a few on the first descent and bust a gut closing the gap on a Darwen Dasher dressed as a Christmas tree on the flat section which diverts around Whinberry Naze on the descent. Got him and a few others as we re-joined the steep grassy path and held on for 63rd overall. As ever though, some great V60's had turned up to show me how it's done.

The final steep bit up Cowpe Lowe

The butcher didn't like
that I beat him!

Results: 63rd/193  Vet 60: 5th/23  Time: 34:23

Distance: 6.4km  Climb: 229m

The Stoop: Race 8 of 60@60

It had been been a while since I last visited Penistone Hill Country Park - not since doing my 50 @ 50 in fact - so it was nice to see that it's just as bleak as I remember it. It was an exceptionally windy day even for such a notoriously exposed spot but bright and clear with no rain expected. Kit requirement was a very old school "Jacket recommended" which I love (although I did take the Santa hat along too, just in case).

Having travelled over with Josh I felt obliged to have a little jog warm up out on the course which revealed, apart from the tiredness in my legs, the fact that heading out at the start was going to be hard into the wind but that coming back up the hill to the finish was going to be faster than usual. So I tucked in behind an Ilkley runner on the way out, struggled with tiredness on the last km of the climb across the slippery, peaty moor top and got to the summit stone just behind a group of half a dozen or so. As is my custom, I pressed on in the descent, passing them all and noting that the leader of the group was a man of about my vintage. No way I could take a break in the last mile then, as I had Josh (who had come back out after his very creditable 4th overall) shouting at me that he was catching. I held on. Turns out I needn't have bothered though - he was V50 after all. I finished 22 seconds faster than 10 years ago though so he had done me a favour by pushing me all the way. 

Portaloos were a bit
awkward of access

The BCR Contingent
Phil, me and Josh

Results: 65th/149  V60: 3rd/12  Time: 46:32

Distance: 8km  Climb: 250m

Slieau Whallian: Race 7 of 60@60

Bonkers. Half a day of travel each way, a horrible sicky ferry crossing and 2 nights in an hotel which saw it's best days 40 years ago, and all for a 2.25 mile race which never even left the forestry plantation. I loved it, absolutely loved it. I would have liked to do the extra couple of hundred feet to the summit of the hill, into the teeth of the howling gale, but the course that we did do was absolutely brilliant - crazy, but brilliantly crazy, all mud, steep embankments and tree roots.

I chatted with the V60 series leader and eventual winner, Shaun before the race, telling him that there was always some other old fart turns up to stop me  winning the V60 category. He then proceeded to take over 2 minutes out of me. 2nd again, easy top half finish, I can see that a pattern is developing.

Me and Shaun

Climbing the last bit
through the forest

Results: 42nd/102  V60: 2nd/9  Time: 27:50

Distance 3.6km  Climb: 240m

Race 6 of 60@60: Really Wild Boar

A new race to me and what a great route - I can't believe I've been missing out on this race for so long. The run out on the track is too runnable for me and I didn't feel I was doing too well by the time we got up to the fell gate at Dolphinsty. A couple more people got past me as I struggled up the final steep bit of climb but arriving at the snowy summit plateau into a bitterly cold wind I was in my element. I regained the places I had lost and got to the trig point in front of a small group confident that I would soon get away from them on the steep, rough, unmarked descent. The only people I could see in front were quite a distance away on the moor but I managed to pass a couple of them just before rejoining the track for the blast back in to the finish. 4th Vet 60 and top half overall.

Josh and I walked back over to the Fat Lamb Inn for soup and a pint and for Josh to collect his prize for second place, having arrived at the summit in first place but losing out to the eventual winner who was much more sure of the best line on the descent. Should've won Josh - that's a fantastic trophy! We ended up driving home in heavy snow with the traffic chaos of the weekend about to unfold. I walked the last mile up from the A590, having been dropped off, but Josh had to put his fell kit back on and run another 5 miles to get back to Kirkby.

Results: 38th/77  V60: 4th/14  Time: 57:52

Distance: 8km  Climb: 427m

The start area

The last bit of the way home